It has always been a dream of mine to one day go to Hawaii. When Jon got the opportunity to go down there and interview for a week I was jealous, but knew that Ben and I wouldn't be able to join him. After some easy convincing by my mom I got a plane ticket for myself. Thanks to Jon's mom and Billy for coming to stay with Ben while we were gone.
What a task they had for themselves, Ben getting sick and our sewer backing up into our basement. I really can't believe that everything that could possibly go wrong, did. I'm just glad no one ended up the the hospital. Thanks for being such troopers Lark and Billy. Aside from what was happening back at home Jon and I had a great time in Hawaii. For the first week Jon had to go into work.
This was no big deal for me. With the time change, I was up pretty early along with Jon. At 8, when the pool opened, I was laying out in the sun with a book. It was nice a relaxing, sunning my body and enjoying a good book. One day I went to the near by shops and looked around. It's amazing how some of the stuff can be so much more. Jon and I went to eat out at Chili's and it was almost double to price,
but when we ate at Red Lobster, it was about the same price as here. Another one of the days I dropped Jon off at work and went to the temple to do a session. To drive around the island is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I loved seeing the green mountains, and the blue water, occasionally we would see a rainbow. We celebrated Jon's birthday while in Hawaii. Poor Jon had a hard time turning 30 this year. We went to dinner at P.F. Chang's and then bought dessert at the Cheesecake factory, which we brought back to the hotel. Such exciting party people we are. When Jon was done with his work week we spent the rest of our time together traveling the island. We went to several areas to see what were possible places for us to live if we get sent to Hawaii.
We looked at the different base housing and then drove to time the drive for Jon in different community areas. It was wonderful getting to see most of the island. We spent a couple days at the beach. Jon not being a beach person was a good sport and let me lay in the sun. We also spent a day at the Polynesian cultural center. I wish we were a little more organized in knowing where to go and what to see.
It seemed like we walked in at the end of most of the little shows they presented at the different villages. We went to the luau, which was fun. The food was pretty good. And then they had a show later that night which had different dances from the different islands. It was a nice day together. The weather was so wonderful. It was always warm and never seemed to be too hot.
On our last day we spent it on the beach at our hotel. It was around 5 at night and we were still laying there in our swim suits without worrying about the weather. What a great life for 5 years that would be for us. To live in Paradise. I wonder what Jon will put as his number one spot and where we will be sent. Deep down inside I really, really, REALLY want to be sent to Hawaii.
Halloween was pretty fun this year. First we had our ward party the Saturday before, which I helped out with. Benjamin seemed to have
fun with pumpkin bowling, eating treats, and dressing up. On Halloween day I took Ben out to a near by farmers market. They had animals to pet, colored chickens, pumpkins, haunted Tee-Pees, we also got a couple donuts for a treat while there. Ben seemed to have fun. He was a little unsure of the haunted Tee-Pees but enjoyed them when we got in and realized it was just pumpkins and glow in the dark skeletons. 
We took him Trick-or-Treating later that night. After dinner we got him dressed up in his pirate costume and took him out. I don't think he understood fully what was going on but he would run from door to door. We would get him to say "Trick-or-Treat" and then he would take what candy they handed him. It was cute. We mostly just did our friends houses. I'm sure that next year he will get the full concept. It was a little hard getting a picture of him in his outfit because he was so excited. I did me best though. It was also nice that the weather was nice and he didn't need a coat on. I remember many Halloweens having to wear my winter coat under my costume.
